THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY’S ICE FLOE POLITICS:
The Democratic leadership is also very old. The average age of the Democratic House leadership is 70 (compared to 53 for Republicans); Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is 80; her lieutenants Steny Hoyer and James Clyburn are 81 and 80, respectively. Senator Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is a comparatively spry 70.
The liberal mainstream media occasionally comments on the age of Democratic leaders: New York magazine lamented the “Gerontocracy of Democratic Party Leadership” back in 2016, as did The New Republic in 2019 (“The Democrats are Too Old”), but they did so as part of an effort to paint Feinstein as senile and thus incapable of doing activists’ bidding during Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearings, not as a matter of general concern.
“Republicans were stealing another seat” on the high court, TNR claimed, and “Feinstein conducted the hearings as if they were occurring in a normal political environment.” She even had the temerity to hug her colleague Lindsey Graham, which was, in the liberal media’s eyes, a clear sign of senility.
In other words, Democrats prefer to ignore the age issue until it becomes useful as a justification for pushing out someone who is no longer useful to the party.
It’s a cynical tactic that will continue to create odd political moments, such as Nancy Pelosi shimmying after the passage of the recent COVID relief bill or older Democratic leaders kneeling in kente cloth in support of Black Lives Matter (and struggling to get up afterward). Those displays make older Democrats paradoxically seem less like vigorous leaders and more like advertisements for assisted living communities that strenuously highlight all of the things “active seniors” can still do.
The next time a Democratic politician makes an anonymous observation about the age or vigor of a colleague with whom they disagree, be skeptical. The remarks are made to reporters as if in sorrow, but the message is about as subtle as a shiv in the prison yard.
In 2010, Obama used that sort of language in an effort to toss fellow Democrat Charlie Rangel under the bus:
President Barack Obama has kept mum on the fate of Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) for days — but he tells CBS News that it’s time for the embattled 80-year-old former Ways and Means Chairman to end his career “with dignity.”
“I think Charlie Rangel served a very long time and served– his constituents very well. But these– allegations are very troubling,” Obama told Harry Smith in an interview to be aired on the “Early Show.” and first broadcast on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric.
“And he’ll– he’s somebody who’s at the end of his career. Eighty years old. I’m sure that– what he wants is to be able to– end his career with dignity. And my hope is that– it happens.”
Rangel hung on for another six years in office, retiring at the age 86.
UPDATE (FROM GLENN): AP: The progressive project of throwing Justice Breyer under the bus is real, and it’s spectacular.